Addiction
by Lyralocke
Summary: Kataang, oneshot. Addiction is a human flaw. It’s much more common than people think. Nearly everyone is addicted to something. My little sister happens to be addicted to the Avatar.


_Okay, so, I started writing this ages and ages ago. I can't even remember when. It must have been around the beginning of season three. Yeah, seriously. But I lost focus and it died. I just started working on it again a couple days ago. I don't like it anymore, but I'm sick of having it sit around, and the original idea was pretty good so I don't just want to delete it. So… here it is._

_The first story I posted was from Toph's POV, and I wanted to try one from Sokka's. So this one is._

_Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar_

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Addiction is a human flaw. It's much more common than people think. Nearly everyone is addicted to something. Some people are addicted to food. Some are addicted to bending. Alcohol, sleep, medicine, sarcasm, fighting, anything can be an addiction.

My little sister happens to be addicted to the Avatar.

She has been since day one.

I first saw it the day we broke him out of the iceberg. She was fascinated by him, asking him about everything. I don't think she even realized how much she already cared about him then.

When he was banished from our village, it killed her. We had hardly known him for a day, and she was willing to leave her tribe, her family, her whole life behind for him. It wasn't because she wanted to. It was because she had to. She didn't know it, but he already had her hooked.

So imagine her horror when he surrendered to the Fire Nation to protect us. She didn't hesitate to demand that we go find him. I had already figured this out by now and was packing the canoe. She was jonesing.

From then on, she rarely let him out of her sight. I could tell what was happening. Her first brush with jealousy came in the form of a mob of eight-year-old girls on Kyoshi Island. When we arrived in Omashu and were kidnapped by Bumi's soldiers to force Aang into the three tasks, she was in a panic. Not for us, even though we were the hostages, but for him. For Aang.

When we found Bato and Aang didn't tell us about the map to find our father, she didn't want to leave him. She fought with me, but in the end I pulled the family card. I was angry. She was just confused. I still regret manipulating her like that.

Then came one of the big catastrophes. When Zuko took Aang from the Spirit Oasis at the North Pole. She couldn't handle it. Yue and I were fighting her for every inch, trying to keep her calm. I had never seen her so relieved as she was when we found him.

Upon our return to Omashu, Katara was faced with yet another lengthy separation. Aang took off to look for Bumi while we helped the citizens escape. She couldn't sit still. She paced endlessly around the campsite. When Aang finally came back, announcing he hadn't found Bumi, she hugged him. I knew that hug wasn't for him. It was for her. She had been away from him for too long.

The town of Chin wasn't exactly a good time either. While Katara and I were trying to find evidence to prove Aang's innocence, she was eerily calm. It was an act. She was scared. So, so scared for him. Don't even get me started on when he was sentenced to be boiled in oil. She was actually relieved when the Rough Rhinos showed up.

Then Toph came into the picture. The strain between Toph and Katara was obvious, and in turn the strain between Katara and Aang increased. She wasn't used to sharing Aang's attention. Aang was spending more and more time learning to earthbend with Toph, and Katara was spending more and more time alone. She took out her frustration on Toph. Sometimes it was well-deserved, but I knew she didn't really mean it. She was fighting for time to waterbend with him.

The desert nearly killed her. Though I wasn't exactly lucid at the time, I could tell afterward that it had hurt her badly. We had all fallen apart, Aang especially. Seeing him turn like that had shattered something inside her. When we got out of that wasteland, she didn't speak for days. She was tired all the time, but she never complained. When she saw that Aang had lost all hope, she put on another act. She pretended she was still unbreakable. The only thing holding her together was her drive to keep Aang near her.

He left us at the end of the Serpent's Pass. He wasn't gone long, but we had expected it to be a longer separation. Katara was steeling herself for it, distracting herself with the baby. She was preparing herself for the withdrawal she would suffer. When Aang returned, she was relieved despite his grave news.

Ba Sing Se was good for her in some ways. We were stuck in that house for extended periods of time, so he was never too far away. With all the secrecy and corruption around us, having Aang nearby was her lifeline. When we finally outed Long Feng, I was shocked to hear Katara suggesting we split up. I think she may have finally realized she was addicted at that point, and she got scared. So she suggested, in her own way, that we all take a step back from each other.

I don't know how she held up in those couple of days. She was probably fine on the outside. But I knew she would be going through something terrible on the inside. Addiction does that to you.

Then the unthinkable happened. Aang fell. And no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't bring him back. For weeks she rarely left his side. It was a bad time for Toph and me, too. It was hard to watch her go through that. Toph knew by then just how addicted she was, and I didn't have to tell her.

But then he woke up. Katara was thrilled. She could finally speak to him again, finally look at him and see him looking back at her. But he wasn't the same boy he had been when he had fallen. She tried to comfort him, tried to reassure him, but he ran off.

Katara broke that day.

At first she was just angry. But then she spoke to Dad for a while, and after that all she could do was cry. And she did, for hours. Toph and I didn't know what to do. I hadn't seen her cry since Mom died. But losing Aang like that, feeling like she could have prevented it, completely destroyed her. Even now, I don't think Aang realizes what he did to her.

When we found him, she was happier than I had seen her in a very long time. But after that, she was acting strange. She hadn't put herself back together yet. She was always watching him, she hardly slept to make sure he didn't take off. But she started to ease up as we got used to the Fire Nation.

I saw them getting closer, and though I would never admit it, I was glad. Aang had always been crazy about her. I knew that, Toph knew that. Katara, of course, had no idea. She was becoming increasingly aware of her own feelings, however. She isn't just addicted. She's in love with him. I knew that, Toph knew that. Aang, of course, had no idea.

But it seemed that they both realized just how close we were getting to the end of our journey once we reached the Fire Nation. They both felt they were running out of time, so they started to get closer. It started with the secret dance party, and just grew from there. By the time we reached the invasion meeting point, I was surprised they weren't already making out at every available opportunity.

But Katara's addiction was at its worst. While Aang panicked about facing the Fire Lord, she was doing all she could to keep him calm, keep him close. She was very aware by then of just how addicted she was, and she seemed to be embracing it.

After all, there are some addictions you just can't kick.

As the day of the invasion drew near, I spent my time building armor for Appa. It gave me time to think. I couldn't help but wonder if this addiction was the healthy kind or the unhealthy kind. I knew if Katara ever started a real relationship with Aang, she wouldn't be able to get out of it if she had to. Aang was still a little unstable emotionally. He had lost his entire race and replaced them with Katara. But then, Katara wanted him more than she had ever wanted anything. Even Toph could see that.

So the next day, the Day of Black Sun, I wasn't surprise that Aang kissed her.

She seemed to be.

Yeah, I know, I shouldn't have been spying. But I have to look out for my little sister. The two of them were alone out there, and I had to make sure they were safe. I didn't hear anything they said, but the kiss was hard to miss. She was acting a little odd the rest of the day, but I didn't have time to worry about that. After all, we were invading the Fire Nation.

But the invasion failed and we ended up fleeing to the Western Air Temple. That's where I am now. We arrived at the temple around sunset and went to sleep immediately, all of us needing rest. So here we are, the day after the Day of Black Sun, and nobody is sure what to do.

So while we sit silently around the fire, I'm thinking again.

This addiction of hers… it's definitely the healthy kind.

"Katara."

She looks up. I gesture for her to follow me. She does. We leave our friends by the fire and I sit down with her in a big empty sanctuary within the Air Temple.

"Look… Katara, you might not like me saying so, but you have an addiction," I say carefully.

Katara stares at me. "What are you talking about?"

I give her e level look. "You're addicted to him, Katara. Don't try to tell me you aren't."

She blushes and looks away, trying desperately to have no idea what I'm talking about.

"Sokka…" she begins, but she doesn't seem to know where to go from there.

"Well, are you going to talk to him?"

She glances sharply at me. "What?"

I sigh and lean back slightly. "Katara, I promised Dad I would protect you," I say quietly. "That includes protecting you from yourself. I've been watching over you these past months, and you're tearing yourself apart."

Katara looks down again, but she doesn't say anything.

"You do know he's got it just as bad as you, right?" I say delicately.

Katara nods miserably. "He kissed me," she says simply.

I decide not to tell her I already knew that.

"So, what are you going to do about it?" I ask gently.

"I don't want to push him," she says evasively. "He's so down right now…"

"Exactly why he needs something to cheer him up," I say, shrugging.

"But what if…" she blurts before she can stop herself. She stares at me for a moment. I wait patiently. "What if he changes his mind?"

I shake my head, resisting the urge to laugh. "Don't be stupid, Katara," I say simply. "He isn't going to change his mind. Just go talk to him."

Katara smiles a little. "Okay," is all she says.

I get to my feet and return to the campfire. "Hey, Aang." He looks up at me. "Katara wants to talk to you."

He stands immediately, walking cautiously in the direction I just came from. I smile a little. I'll give them their space this time.


End file.
